Summer in Santa Barbara!!

So, I have to apologize to anyone that is trying to follow this blog. I am sorry for the HUGE gap in posts. I kind of thought that Elder Barlow was sending a Mass email to most of his friends/family, and I didn't want to repeat everything, but I realized that there are probably others that do not receive emails, and I don't know how often he sends the group one. So I will just try and be better about posting things and if you follow along and have already heard everything, you can choose to stop reading! :)
So those of you that don't know, Austin has stayed in Santa Barbara through 3 transfers now. He said he is loving it there. He sounds like he is working hard! He is now assigned to be on his bike only, and they are without a car. It is getting hotter in Santa Barbara so I think that has been a little bit of a challenge. But all in all, he is happy and doing well. I got a letter in the mail from him a few weeks ago from him, in it he said a sentence that I will never forget, and makes my heart happy. He said: "I love my life right now, and I wouldn't trade what I am doing for Anything!"
As a mother that was awesome to hear, It makes the heartache of missing him a little easier to handle! :)

So here is today's email:

I am so glad it is p-day again! here is how my week went!!

Monday was great! I found out where my grandparents are going on their mission.. they are going to San Diego!! that was a really cool Surprise for me!! haha, i know that they will do such great things there!!

Tuesday was another good day, we stopped by this guys house, his name is Ramon and he was not to interested in the message we had to share, he says he is catholic, but he says he does not go... so yeah.

Wednesday we took all the Pamphlets that we use to teach, to our investigator Vanessa! she wants to read them all and we are super excited about it!! She wants to learn so much more about the Gospel!! it is so Awesome!!

Thursday was our Zone meeting! it was great as usual! i really liked how we talked about how our end goal is not just to have our investigators be baptized, but to help them get sealed in the temple for time and all eternity! it was such a good Zone Meeting! We also saw a less active family at a park, the Alarcon Family. It was great to see them and we talked to them for a little bit and we invited them to church, so we hope they have the time to come!

Friday we saw another less active named Javier, and we also invited him and his family to church! we invited him to read in the Book of Mormon, and he said that he would, Then we had another great lesson with Juan G. we also met some other guys that where there and they asked a lot of questions about us as missionaries, and they could not belive that me and Elder Passey are from Utah. it was funny!

Saturday was Amazing we had our lesson with Vanessa and we showed her the Restoration Movie and She loved it, and her two kids did too! She invited us to have dinner with her family that night because they were having a big family dinner so of course we said Yes!! Free Food!! :) 

Sunday Vanessa and Juan G. both came to church, we had another amazing lesson with Vanessa and Her Husband Bryan, and Bryan is a member and he helped out a lot with having us teach her!  We read 3 Nephi 11 and it went so good! We set her with a Baptismal date for the 2nd of August, and she told us that she is going to pray about it! she is progressing so well!

Miracle of the Week :  

So before church we had our ward council and we needed a ride back home really fast cause we needed to grab a few things so a member comes and picks us up , but on the way home the members car dies and we are stuck on the side of the street! we check everything under the hood but nothing seems to be wrong, so we get back inside the car and say a quick pray and after the pray we try to start the car again and..... Nothing it is not working.. so we decide to walk down the street a little and we run into this guy and he says hey i have a quart of oil i can give you guys.. so we walk back up to the car, put the oil in, and the car starts right up!!

It was such a great miracle to see our savior work in so many different ways!!

I just want you all to know how much i love you!!! thank you again for all of your love and support!!

Keep on Keepin on!!

Work Hard and Play Hard!!

Hasta Luego!

ELDER BARLOW

Ha Ha Elder Barlow is pretty creative!!

This is his District!!

Elder Barlow and Elder Passey at the English Ward 4th of July Pancake Breakfast!!

Austin loves letters and Email, so keep them coming!

Santa Barbara Happenings!!

Elder Barlow is continuing to love his mission! He is keeping busy and trying to get his new area figured out! Here is his latest email:

Hey B_CREW!!

I am so excited to share this week with you guys!! it has been a really good week! and i cant wait to tell you what is going on!!!

Monday was so much fun! P-Day is always such a great day to prepare for the week! We stopped by at least 3 of our investigators and they were all home! it was such a good day!

Tuesday was so great!! Zone Conference was one of my favorite days so far on the mission! i got so much revelation that day!! I love being able to get so much inspiration for our investigators!! i went to the zone conference with a few questions and they all got answered, it was great!! I know for sure that the Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Jesus Christ! It was so great to see some familiar faces from Fillmore! Elder Jones and Elder James are doing great! it was nice to see them again. they are the greatest.

Wednesday we went out and got quite a few Declarations! it was such a great time! i love being able to share the gospel to someone that might be looking for it in their own lives! it is so great to go out and find someone that is so prepared for the gospel in their lives! and i love being able to see miracles every day!

Thursday went great we had a little quick lesson with a recent convert named Joel! it went very good! he is doing so good and loves talking with us, and when he does he tells us stories.. a lot of stories! But today we also got a lot of Declarations! me and Elder Griffin had a great day!

Friday was weekly planning! it was a good time talking and planning with Elder Griffin! Things are going good in the area and we are trying to focus on finding some new investigators this week so we will be working pretty Hard!

Saturday we had an exchange with our District Leader, i was on the Exchange with Elder Parrish, he came in with me from the CCM in Mexico City so it was such a good day to work with him. we had a great day, i tried to focus on Diligence during our exchange, and just always enjoying the work of the lord! it was such a great day! Then the branch had a little party for a members birthday so we had dinner at the church and it went great! anyways so about Elder Parrish He is from Brigham City! and we got talking about some stuff over our Exchange and get this! he would go hunting up Mink Creek  because his grandpa used to own the land up there. So where we go sledding in that little parking lot, that used to be his grandpas land!! and his grandpa runs the little cemetery in Fair view! where the dirt bike track is!! he said he would always drive through lewiston too so he basically knows where i live!! and his grandparents live in Preston and i told that mine do too! and we might think that they live by each other!! haha Crazy!

Sunday went great too. Maria did not show up to church, we had a rough week with her she was never home during the week so we dont know what happened, we even tryed calling her too, so, all we can do is keep her in our prayers. Our recent convert Joel brought one of his friends to church too so that was a little miracle for the day!

So that is whats up in Santa Barbara!! i got nate a birthday card today so he will be getting that pretty soon!

 

So some crazy news that i have. when we had our Zone Conference on Tuesday, President Castro spoke to us and said that next month on April 19th a member of the quorum of the 12 Apostles will be visiting our mission!! and today i found out who it is!!   Elder Russell M. Nelson!! 

I am so excited for him to come! all the missionaries get to meet him!!!! oh yeah!!  

I got your package and it was great! the pants work perfect! 

That is awesome about lindsays friend!! i hope she keeps up the good work!

Give Maggie and Lily a treat for me!

I will write a letter to you as soon as i can, and i guess that my hand writting is getting better haha!

I love you all so much i will be watching for the other package to come to! I am so grateful for the family that i have! i love you all so much!! keep on keepin on!

 

con amor,

 

Elder Barlow

 

P.S. I will send my sd card home today it is full!! i hope you guys like it!! 

nos vemos!

 

 

Cutest Missionary Ever!!

 

 

 

Santa Barbara/Los Olivos Branch Week One!!

This was Austin's last email! He sounds like it has been a good transfer so far! He gave us his actual address at the end of the email, because we are tracking all of his mission areas on Google earth. If you write him or send him anything please continue to do it with the mission home address!!

Elder Austin O'Neil Barlow
California Ventura Mission
3301 West Gonzales Road
Oxnard, CA 93036

Thanks for your interest/love/prayers/and support of this Awesome Missionary!! :)

HOLA B-CREW

Hey guys! it was so awesome to see your email this morning!! it has been a good week!!

 

Monday was such a great day to get ready to go to the new area in Santa Barbara!! it was so good to spend some time with our district for the last time! we went to go see a few members also to tell them that i am off to Santa Barbara!! it was very hard to leave Fillmore. i have grown so close to the people there! but it is all good!

Tuesday was great. transfer meeting was so great! it was was good to hear the testimony's of the departing missionaries this transfer! it made me have a spiritual boost for sure! then i met my new companion Elder Griffin! i like him already! we get along so great! we had dinner at our ward mission leaders house and it was good to meet a few members of the branch!
Wednesday was my first full day of work here in Santa Barbara! I got to meet a family that we are teaching that has a baptismal date for the 29th of March! it is great! they are so prepared! we also had another lesson with Alfonso he is a very nice guy and is super prepared for the gospel! 

Thursday we talked to a lot of people on the street! it was very fun! we also had a lesson with a catholic family that we are teaching! they are very nice! they are going to be feeding us on Thursday so it is great!

Friday was weekly planning which was great! it also rained a bunch too! it was crazy! we had dinner with a Hermana in the branch she was very nice! the members here feed us a bunch it is great!

Saturday was good we went and had another lesson with Maria it went great! we had a member present with us this time, we talked about reading the scriptures always, and also praying too! she liked it a lot! we even got her to say the pray at the end of the lesson!! it was great!!

Sunday was my first time at the los olivos branch!! it was great to meet so many new members and family's! Maria even came to church and she brought all of her kids with her too!! it was her 3rd time at church too!! ans she is going to come next week also!!

The rain has been crazy this week! we haven't seen the sun until today so it was so awesome to have a little river outside of our apartment!! haha 

La Rama Los Olivos is awesome!! it is all in Spanish! this whole week i have only spoke in Spanish to people it is great! i already understand so much more!! i love it!!

Last night me and Elder Griffin were driving down State. St. it is a Really busy st. in Santa Barbara! but we always see homeless guys on the st. but last night there was a crazy guy! he had a broken foot but he grabbed his crutch that he had and started to play it like a guitar!! it was funny then he tryed to stab people with it !!! it was funny!

I am so glad that you all are doing good!! i will be waiting for the little package!! and all the other stuff!

I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!!! 

 

Keep in touch!!!! i will talk to you later!

yo se que jesucristo vivi!

con amor!

Elder Barlow

 

p.s. this is the address to our apartment!

714 W. Arrellaga St. #12

Santa Barbara CA. 93101!!

nos vemos!!

 

Transfer Time!!

Transfers were yesterday! Elder Barlow is happy and excited! Here is his email from Yesterday.... Feb. 24, 2014!

HEY B-CREW!!

This week has been AWESOME!!

 

Monday was great! we had a wonderful P-Day! Getting ready for the week is always such a good thing to do!! Shopping for food was good but with transfers coming up I really didn't want to buy anything!!

Tuesday went well! also we contacted one of our Referrals from Santa Paula 2nd sisters, his name is Julio, it was good to meet him! We had another lesson with Susie it went great! She told us when we got there that the night before she watched the Joseph Smith movie and she Loved it! It is so awesome to see her progressing so well!

Wednesday we talked to a less active in the ward her name is Hana. Martinez it is our recent converts mom ( Johnny's  Mom) She was really nice to us and she very busy with school and work so it was a quick lesson! We also had our correlation meeting with our Ward Mission Leader and he has some friends visiting, so we got to introduce our selves to them and it went great!

 

Thursday Was a great day for Elder Jones it was his Birthday!! He had a great day! We went and stopped by a lot of our investigators to have some lessons and it all went great! We had English Class and we got a new investigator out of it. her name is Maria she told us that she loves to read the Bible and listen to it on her CD's!! She is very Interested!

Friday was good. We did weekly planning and it is crazy to think that this Transfer is already over! Our Ward Mission Leader took our investigator Susie to the L.A. Temple to let her go to the visitors center! She told us that she loved it and I know that she felt the spirit there for sure!!

Saturday we went out to do some Declarations it went well. we found out the Zone Leaders came into our area to help us get some Declarations! it was quite the Surprise!! We also went to go see another Less active in Piru. her name is Sis. Zavala! She was very nice to us and we invited her to church!

Sunday Sis. Zavala (The Less Active) was not at church but her Daughter came it was awesome to see her there the ward was very excited too!! I love the members here in Fillmore they are great!!

I have some AWESOME news!! we got transfer calls this morning and I am getting transferred!! Do you guys have any guesses where I am going??................

Santa Barbara!!!! It is awesome!! I will be going into the los olivos Spanish Branch!! So my Spanish skills will be tested!! it will also help me learn more too!!! I am so excited! I cant wait!! My new comps name is Elder Griffin! he was in Elder James District in the MTC!!

That is crazy to hear about the snowmobile accident!! that is so sad! But our heavenly father knows  why things happen for a reason!!

Tell DAD HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I am glad he liked the Card it made me laugh too!!

That is so cool to hear about Caleb!! im sure his Spanish is great! and to hear about Elder Fridals mom! I still see him sometimes it is great!!

I was wondering if you could do something for me!! I don't know if you have a copy of my Patriarchal Blessing but if you do could you go get it shrunk down to a small size and get it laminated and send it to me!! That would be great!

Last night we went around to take pictures with some members it was fun!! it was very hard to say goodbye to some of them!! I have grown so close to this ward and I don't want to leave, but the lord knows where I need to go and it is going to be great!!

I love you guys so much!! keep up the hard work and tell Beast good job on the penalty kick! I am jealous!!

Keep on Keeping on!!

Te Amo Mi Familia!!

nos vemos!!

Elder Barlito!!

 

We can't wait to hear about his new area, and this new leg of his adventures in the mission.

 

 

A picture of his tri-pan that he was just serving with!

Elder Jones, Elder Barlow, Elder James

 

 

 

Happy Birthday and Happy 6 month mark!! :)

Elder Barlow turned 19 on Monday Jan. 27, 2014 and also hit his 6 month out mark on Thursday Jan. 30, 2014. The time is going by quickly! He loves the mission, his companions, and the people that he is meeting/teaching!!

            This picture is of his tri-pan/companionship (left to right) Elder Jones, Elder James, and Elder Barlow, and in the Center, Tom one of their investigators.

He still loves getting letters or anything in the mail!! Thanks for all your love and support!!

Elder Austin O'Neil Barlow
California Ventura Mission
3301 West Gonzales Road
Oxnard, CA 93036

Miracles in the Mission!!

Elder Barlow is doing so well, and having some awesome miracles happening in the mission. He is happy, and that makes us happy as well!! He sent an email last week, and also a letter to Lindsay. Chad and I were on vacation, and Lindsay wrote Austin while we were gone and he sent her a great letter back. The email and the letter both told about his miracle week. Lindsay's letter was a little more descriptive, so I will post it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We are so thankful for such wonderful testimony building stories like this!

 Elder Barlow is a great example to us.

 

Temple~New Investigators~Happy!!

Austin had another great week! It was good to hear from him Monday! He was able to go to the L.A. Temple Yesterday, because it is his birthday month, and they get to go during the month of their birthday! He was super excited for that, and we look forward to hearing about that in future emails.

Here is Monday's email:

Hola!!

WHAAAAZZZ UUUUUUPPPPP!!!

I am so glad to hear that you all are doing good! That is awesome that you all had a great new years eve! guess what we got to do?? any guesses? We had to be back at our apartments by 7:00! Oh yeah it was such a party! when we were trying to go to sleep a lot of people were shooting fireworks and guns too cause we heard the cops out all night long! haha!

That is awesome that the kids are back in school!! I hope they are enjoying it! That is crazy to think that Lindsay can start dating! I am in shock!! ;) jk Tell Lindsay that I will be sending some pictures home soon for her! I went to go print some off last P-Day but the stupid machine was broken!! so I promise I will be sending some soon!!

I am so happy that you got my SD Card! that is a very funny video while we were driving in the car!!! It is probably one of the best! haha. I cant wait to fill up the SD card I have now and send it home to all of you guys!!! 

So guess what? I am going to the L.A. Temple not on the 9th but on the 7th so..... Tomorrow!!! I am so excited to go it will be such a good experience!! I cant wait! I hope that you and dad have an awesome time on your trip.. and send me something from there!! haha!

So me and Elder Carter Found a family that has been talking with missionarys for a long time. the familys name is the bucks! they are very interested in the gospel! we talked to them on Saturday night and they are very interested in the temples too!! Most of the dads friends are Mormon so that is good! this weekend the mom said that she would read out of the book of Mormon so I cant wait to follow up with them, Johnny is doing great he is having an interview with the bishop on Wednesday to prepare to get the Priesthood! It will be awesome to see him help with the sacrament every week!

Speaking about the sacrament every sunday  during sacrament meeting there is only one priest in the ward so I usually help bless the sacrament!! it is always such a spiritual expirence! Then since this week was testimony meeting  I also got up and gave just a short testimony, that is so cool that you were able to give your testimony about how I am doing!

I have a few things you can send me in the birthday package or just in separate, I could use some more stamps! that would be cool maybe you could make me some stickers that have Elder Austin Barlow on them with the mission address so I can just throw those on the envelope instead of writing it out!, I also need some more fingernail clippers maybe you can get some heavyduty ones for me! then I want jerkey too maybe just a box of slim jims or something whatever you can find will be awesome!

I am so glad that you all are doing good! I also pray for you daily I love you guys so much and I will talk to you soon!!

Life is a garden, DIG IT!!!!

nos vemos

ELDER BARLOW  aka Sheldon!!!

 

 

 

 

This was taken at a house where they were doing service, and it started to rain a little bit and then a double rainbow appeared, so they snapped some pictures!!

 

 

Our Favorite Elder 'Sheldon' Austin Barlow.......somewhere on his bike!!

 

Thanks again everyone for your support! It is Elder Barlow's Birthday on January 27th! I am sure he would love a birthday letter!!

 

Elder Austin O'Neil Barlow

California Ventura Mission

3301 West Gonzales Rd.

Oxnard, CA 93036

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I apologize for not keeping up on the blog better through the Holidays! I will try and add updates at least monthly.
Our best Christmas gift this year was being able to talk to Elder Barlow! He sounded so good, and said he was happy! He loves the town of Fillmore where he serving right now. He was so excited about his first baptism, It was 14 year old Johnny.

This is Johnny!!

Johnny has an Uncle that is a member and he asked his Uncle to baptize him!!

Elder Barlow was so excited for Johnny to become a member.

 

Our family enjoyed hearing his stories. He spoke in Spanish to us, sharing his testimony. We all thought that he spoke Great Spanish! He even had a hard time remembering what some words were in English. He said he is slowly but surely learning that Language. He understands a lot of Spanish, and he is not afraid to just try and speak it.

He really is loving the misson, and we are so happy about that. His testimony is such an example to all of us. He has grown in the gospel so much.

 

He sent home his first SD card. Filled with wonderful Pictures and yes even some great video. I will try and add pictures as I blog.

 

On Dec. 30th Elder Barlow reached his 5 month mark. The time is going by quickly (MOST DAYS).

There are times that it feels like forever.

We love him and miss him so much, but are so blessed to have him serve the Lord.

 

Here are some Pictures from the SD card!

Not sure where this is..... a Member's house?

Elder Barlow and Elder Carter with their $12.00 Rite-Aid Christmas tree!!

 

 

 

Thank you everyone for your love, support,  emails, and letters!!